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Chapter Summaries:
Mabel Jones did something gross—she picked her nose and ate it! Because of this, she was taken from her bedroom by a pirate named Omynus Hussh. Mabel bit him, but he still caught her and put her in a bag. He brought her to a pirate ship called The Feroshus Maggot. The ship’s captain is Captain Idryss Ebenezer Split, a wolf who wears a pirate hat. He also has a fake leg made from a human thigh bone.
Mabel Jones tried to be brave, but it was hard because she was on a pirate ship and missed her mom and dad. She also found out that when she bit Omynus Hussh, it made him lose his hand. Now, he has a doorknob for a hand! Mabel met all of the pirates on The Feroshus Maggot. When the pirates learned she was a girl, they were not happy. They decided she had to walk the plank because they didn’t want a girl pirate on their ship.
Mabel had to walk the Greasy Pole of Certain Death, but first she wrote a letter to her mom and put it in a bottle. She threw the bottle into the sea. Then, the pirates made her walk the plank! Captain Split asked if she had any last words, and Mabel told them they had spelled the name of their ship wrong. The pirates were surprised she could spell, so they decided to keep her and make her a pirate. Omynus Hussh, however, was not happy about it.
Split told Mabel that the pirates on his father’s ship turned against him and stole pieces of the X. All the pieces put together will make a key. When the comet comes and they use the key, it will open a treasure. They only have 14 days to find the pieces before the comet passes and won’t come back for 100 years! Because Mabel can read, she can figure out the names of the pirates who have the pieces. At first, the list looked like a recipe for mac and cheese, but Mabel learned that if you hold it near a candle, the secret words written in lemon juice turn brown so you can read them.
The first name on the list was Bartok the Brute, so the pirates went to the Cadaverous Lobster Tavern to find him. Mabel saw Bartok beat another pirate in a drinking contest with Wasp Rot, and then the pirates made her compete too. She was very scared but got to pick the drink. When she chose milk, all the pirates were surprised, but she won against Bartok! Before leaving the tavern, Mabel met a strange character named Jarvis the Psychopomp. He warned her not to help Split and then suddenly disappeared.
The next pirate on the list was Ishmael H. Toucan, who was out on the Cold Gray Sea writing a letter to his brother. He was sorry for not sharing the last piece of cheesecake, which made his brother Abel run away and get swallowed by a whale. Before the Feroshus Maggot could reach Ishmael, a huge storm hit the ship and tossed them all around. For a short time, the storm calmed down. While Mabel was looking over the side of the ship, Omynus Hussh suddenly pushed her into the sea!
Mabel was sinking and she realized that she was drowning. Then, something enormous began to come towards her and everything got dark. Is Mabel alive???
Drip…Drip…Drip
Mabel woke up to water dripping on her head and thought she was in a cave. Then the cave wall moved, and she realized she was actually inside a whale! As she tried to figure out what to do, a voice surprised her. She turned and saw a toucan—it was Abel, Ishmael’s brother, who had taken the piece of cheesecake! While they talked, Abel showed her boxes of lemonade they could drink, but the lemonade made him very gassy. Suddenly, Mabel came up with an idea!
Captain Split and the pirates of The Feroshus Maggot were in a standoff with Ishmael H. Toucan on his ship, The Peapod, over a piece of the X. The ship caught on fire, and the ice around it began to break apart. Suddenly, a whale burst out of the water! The whale gave a huge belch, and out came Mabel Jones and Ishmael’s brother, Abel. Mabel’s idea had worked, and Ishmael was so glad to have his brother back that he gave her his piece of the X. Captain Split was angry, but he had to agree to the deal.
Omynus Hussh tried to sneak into a castle to steal another piece of the X and to impress the other pirates. The castle belonged to a Fully Grown-Upman human named Count Anselmo Klack. Sadly for Omynus, the Count caught him trying to take the piece of the X that was hidden inside a book. The Count ordered that Omynus be chained up and thrown into the dungeon. Now Omynus is trapped, and no one knows what will happen to him!
While Omynus Hussh was locked in the dungeon, he remembered being a baby loris when a wolf stole him away from his family and many brothers and sisters. His thoughts stopped when a monkey guard opened the door. The guard pulled down its hood, and Omynus first thought it was a ghost. But then he saw it was really Mabel Jones! Mabel explained everything, and they made peace with each other. Before she left, Mabel gave Omynus a bag, whispered some secret instructions, and slipped away.
A big crowd gathered at Count Anselmo Klack’s castle, waiting for the event to begin. Omynus Hussh was about to have his last good hand cut off for trying to steal the Count’s piece of the X. When the ax came down, the crowd gasped as Omynus’s hand rolled right to Mabel Jones. She quickly grabbed it and hid it in her pocket. Then, all the pirates from The Feroshus Maggot pulled off their disguises and started their attack! The Count didn’t worry at first—until he saw that the monkey guard beside him was actually Mabel Jones. She ordered him to call off his guards, just like a true pirate.
The Count talked with Mabel and asked how she came to this world. He told her that he was also from the human world and had been very important there. Then he said she could stay with him in the castle and be a princess. Mabel thought about it for a moment, but she remembered that she was a pirate, not a princess! Instead, she demanded the Count’s piece of the X. Then she ran back to the ship.
As Mabel ran away, she started to feel like something was wrong. When she got back to the ship, she found out the Count had tricked her! Instead of giving her the piece of the X, he had only given her a pebble. Captain Split was very angry and came toward her, but then Omynus Hussh spoke up. He showed that he had the real piece of the X. Split grabbed it, and as he walked away, Mabel and Omynus hugged and smiled about being friends.
In this chapter, we find out how Omynus Hussh was able to steal the Count’s piece of the X and still keep his last good hand. When Mabel visited him in the dungeon, she gave him his dried-up hand. Omynus made it look like that was his real hand, so when the ax came down, it was only the dried one that got cut! During the surprise pirate attack, Omynus sneaked into the Count’s balcony and took the piece of the X before Mabel even arrived. Now that he and Mabel were friends, Omynus decided it was time to say goodbye to that old dried-up hand.
Back on the ship, Captain Split told the crew the story of how he learned about the X and why it was so important. His father, Gareth Split, had a ship called the Flying Slug. One day, they rescued a strange human who carried a metal piece of the X. Soon after, the crew turned against Gareth in a mutiny and split up, each pirate taking a piece of the X. They left Gareth, his bird Barrymore, and the human behind to die. Captain Split never found his father, so he decided to collect all the pieces of the X himself. He also showed Mabel his bone leg, which was carved with marks for every pirate he had hurt—and he warned her that she would be the next mark!
When the Feroshus Maggot landed on the island of Scrape, Mabel had to search for Old Hoss by herself. The people on the island did not like pirates, so the crew agreed Mabel had the best chance to get the piece of the X. She asked many townspeople where to find him and was finally led to the church. Mabel was nervous but went inside to look. She discovered that Old Hoss was there—but he was not alive!
Old Hoss had died and was buried in a crypt under the church. Mabel had to sneak down there to try and get the piece of the X from him. She slipped past the priest and went down many stairs until she reached the crypt. When she found Old Hoss’s coffin, she realized she could not steal from the dead. Suddenly, she heard noises and saw others sneaking into the crypt, so she hid. After they left, Mabel discovered they had closed the only door, and now she was trapped inside! She yelled for help, but no one came.
At first, Mabel cried when she realized she was locked in the crypt. Then she wiped her tears and started looking for a way out. She tried moving some bricks and finally found a lever that made old machines begin to turn. The crypt started to open, but water rushed in and almost drowned her. Mabel floated on a coffin, but it broke open and she landed right on Old Hoss’s body—so gross! Old Hoss didn’t have the piece of the X, but he did have a clue that might help her find it.
When Mabel came back to the ship floating on Old Hoss’s coffin, all the pirates and Captain Split thought she had the piece of the X. When she told them it wasn’t there, Captain Split became very angry at her. Just then, Jarvis the Psychopomp appeared in a puff of smoke. He told Captain Split he could lead them to the Haunted Seventh Sea where the bell tower was. Split agreed, but right after that, Count Anselmo Klack attacked with about forty ships firing cannons at them! The pirates worked hard to escape through a dangerous cave called the Needles, and they made it out—just barely!
As the Feroshus Maggot sailed toward the Haunted Seventh Sea, Mabel explored the ship. She found Jarvis the Psychopomp sitting in a corner and offered him an apple, but he didn’t move. Curious, she peeked under his robe and was shocked to find a small hooman boy inside! She woke him up, and he admitted that he dressed as Jarvis the Psychopomp to survive in this world. Mabel learned he had been kidnapped five years earlier and wanted to go home. He told her the comet was his only chance, and that was why he was on their ship.
Mabel knew their trip was almost done, but she realized Jarvis did not really have the last piece of X. She kept thinking about Old Hoss’s note, the one that said you could limp in any direction but not get closer to the piece of X. Mabel felt like there was an important clue there, but she had to stop thinking about it because Jarvis began to tell her this place used to be his home. That confused Mabel because it meant Jarvis had lived there thousands of years ago! Then they turned a corner and saw Big Ben. Mabel finally understood that when she was kidnapped, she had been taken into the future—a future with no humans.
The crew could not believe their eyes as they went into the Bell Tower of the Dead. Ghosts were floating all around them, watching them closely. The sight made the whole crew feel nervous and scared. The only one who didn’t seem afraid was Captain Split. He looked almost happy, as if he wanted to fight the ghostly ghouls. Everyone else was worried about what might happen next.
Mabel saw the comet slipping away and knew time was almost gone. To reach the Bell Tower, the crew had to cross a long, shaky plank. Everyone made it across, but when Mabel and Jarvis tried, the Count suddenly showed up! They hurried, but the plank broke under them—luckily, Mr. Clunes saved them both just in time. At the top of the tower, they saw a missing X on the clock’s face and knew this was the right place. The pirates wondered about the treasure, but Captain Split revealed it was an invincible army of ghosts that he wanted to use to take over the hooman world!
As Captain Split got ready to use the pieces of the X, Mabel realized he didn’t actually have them all. The crew started to see this too, and when Split checked again, he grew very angry. He turned on Jarvis and attacked him, but when he was done, there was nothing left—Jarvis had vanished! Just then, Split saw that the Count was coming closer. Out of fear and desperation, Split threw himself onto the giant bell to make it ring, even without the completed X!
Klaaaaaaaaaaaaank!!!
The worst sound the pirates had ever heard came from Big Ben’s bell when Captain Split forced it to ring. The noise made all the ghosts and ghouls furious, and they began to attack the Count’s ships. The crew of the Feroshus Maggot started to lose hope and wished they had never been part of this fight. When Captain Split went after Mabel, Mr. Clunes stepped in to protect her, and the other pirates finally turned against Split too. During the battle, Split’s bone leg got stuck and broke, sending him falling to his death. Afterward, Mabel and the pirates put the pieces of the X together, and suddenly the clock’s machinery began to move!
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Bonnngg!!!
As the loud bell kept ringing, Mabel felt ghostly hands grabbing her arm and neck. She thought it was the end, but then the ghosts suddenly started to follow her orders! For a moment, Mabel thought about being the queen of the dead, but Jarvis reminded her that the porthole was opening. So, she sent all the ghosts away, and everyone left the bell chamber. Mabel and Jarvis hurried to the porthole, but before she could say goodbye to the crew, she realized Omynus Hush was missing. Just as she was about to leave, a familiar voice stopped her—it was the Count, pointing a pistol right at her heart!
The Count was very, very angry. He told Mabel that he was famous back in the hooman world and wanted to return alone so he could get all the attention. Then he pointed his pistol and shot at Mabel! But Omynus Hush jumped in front and took the bullet for her. While Mabel held Omynus, the rest of the crew fought the Count until the pistol fired again, and the Count fell still. Sadly, Jarvis pulled Mabel into the porthole before she could say goodbye, and soon she found herself back in her own bedroom, as if she had never left at all.
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